NBA Live 08 Hands-on

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Family Play takes over the court.

By Jeff Haynes

Earlier this year, we managed to get our hands on NBA Live 08 for the Wii, and while the pre-E3 build was pretty rough, we got a pretty good sense of where the game was headed. At EA's Studio Showcase, we managed to get our hands and our Miis on a new build, which not only resolved many of our earlier issues, but also highlighted EA Sports' new control scheme known as Family Play.

Centered around giving players who aren't particularly skilled with the nunchuck and the Wii-mote (aka some video game challenged parents or other non-gamers), Family Play allows someone to control and interact with the game solely with the Wii-mote control. All of the controls that we noted from the Pre-E3 build are used, but the game's AI takes over most of the complicated actions, allowing you to simply focus on passing, shooting, blocking shots and steals. In fact, with this new configuration, players can drive to the hoop by pressing the B button and slam with a swipe of the Wii-mote to the left or the right. Players can easily pass out of a shot by hitting the A button or the directional pad, and flicking up and forward can allow you to pop off a jumper. Get your timing down, and you'll be stroking threes from downtown in no time at all. Defenders can easily block shots in the same shooting manner, while putting extra pressure on players with the B button.

The new Family Play controls make it easy to pull up shots...

Now, for the most part, the computer will run your formations for you, as well as help you avoid going out of bounds or other rules violations so players can jump into and play quick, enjoyable games. Many of these will fly by thanks to the two minute quarters that the game initially is set to, but this can be increased at will. While Family Play may be the default mode for the game, skilled players can circumvent this by plugging in the nunchuk, allowing you to perform alley-oops with a lob pass via the C button or run plays with a combination of the Z button and the directional pad on the Wii-mote. Obviously, this will also give you more control over the signature style moves of your star athletes, allowing you to bury more shots and play harder defense. We also found that the free throw mechanic, which hadn't been featured before, had been included and was based on the amount of force put behind a forward flick of the Wii-mote. The harder you pushed, the more the shot meter rose and the higher your chances of making a shot. However, if you pushed too hard, you would move out of the success zone and immediately brick your free throw.

Your Miis play a large part within the game, and after you select which Mii you'll use for each game or game mode, the Mii Integration will continually track your success at gameplay features like shots, blocks and steals. Not only will you get these updates between quarters of games, you'll also use this feature within the game's Party mode, which encompasses the dunk and 3-point shootout. Players will determine the limit of the party mode, which can be set as high as 1500 points, and challenge each other in rounds of play to see who the best player is at both contests. It appears that those will be the only two modes included in the Party mode, but the two mini-games are extremely easy to get into, primarily because they appeared to use the Wii-mote only.

... As well as drive to the basket with the Wii-mote.

In the 3-point contest, players simply needed to flick their controller to the right or hit the A button to grab a ball and use the shot mechanic to fire at the basket. Other players had a definite way to influence these shots by shaking their Wii-motes at the same time, hitting A once their power had been built up to shake the screen. With a two player game, the shaking is relatively tolerable to shoot through, but with a four player game, the screen should vibrate violently. As for the Dunk Contest, players have the opportunity to select from more than 60 dunks as well as the location on the court that they're willing to attempt the dunk from. You'll need to time your swings of the Wii-mote along with the arrows that pop up on the screen. So, if you're going to do a windmill jam, you may need to swing down and then up to get a player in the air, culminating in a circular swing of the arm to mimic the slamming action. Once the dunk is landed, you can celebrate your move by swinging the Wii-mote in one of four directions to get the crowd pumped up. We were pleased by just how smooth the actions played out with the Family Play controls, and we're looking forward for more hands on time with the title. We'll have more impressions on NBA Live 08 for the Wii shortly.